A seeding assembly 1 is shown in FIG. 1 as including a cutting disc 2, a gauge wheel 3, a closing wheel 4 and a parallelogram coupling 5 for connecting the assembly 1 to a frame 6 of a seeding machine. In use, the cutting disc 2 cuts a trench in a ground surface to a depth determined by the gauge wheel 3 and seed is deposited into the trench before the trench is closed over by the closing wheel 4.
Adjustment of the depth of the trench may be required for different ground conditions or for different crops that need different planting depths.
For that purpose, a mechanism 7 is provided, that allows adjustment between the height and orientation of the gauge wheel 3 relative to the closing wheel 4, which in turn varies the height of the gauge wheel 3 relative to the disc 2, in order to vary a planting depth of the trench.
The mechanism shown in FIG. 1 needs manual adjustment and, in cases where a single planting machine includes a multitude of such assemblies, adjustment can take a considerable amount of time, up to a half or full day in some cases. Due to the time required, adjustment may be ignored entirely, which can result in seed being planted at a non-optimal depth.